KVHD Board Meeting 2/1/07 CEO Report and interview

(This is a transcript of the CEO report given by Pamela Ott in February of 2007. It is unedited. Lot's of freudian slips in here)

Pamela Ott:
So, the question in the audience tonight was the nursing center focus survey. Indeed the Department of Health Services has been visiting our nursing center this past week and the week before-and, of course, I wrote this report on Sunday night, so forgive me, it was the last week- so forgive me for that-they haven't been here this week.

So, basically, they came by invitation by an anonymous concern. And I know there has been a rumor out there that our Director of Nursing, who has left us, was put in handcuffs and taken away by the Sheriff's department and that there are some arrest situations there were felony, all of that is absolutely not true. It was just one of those rumors that happens in small towns.

Miss Hughes, umm, was not meeting these standards that we-all-probably should be met of our quality of care that we expect and she gracefully said, she umm, didn't belong in our organization and she left.

Now the survey results are not in- we should get our statement of deficiencies- we know we have some issues we need to fix. It's mostly around these medications in the area of psychotropic medications for people who have psychiatric conditions and we did not have a psychiatrist working with us- we have hired a psychiatrist- we've had the psychiatrist meeting with a patient, everyone of our patients, or residents, who have psychiatric conditions.

That psychiatrist has found that each and every one of those residents was not only appropriate to have those residents on this medication, but also actually recommended some dosage increases.

So, we know on that part we're safe.

But we will find out from the rest of the survey what things we need to do to improve- we're used to surveys- we're used to having areas where we can improve and we will continue to do that in the future.

(That was the end of Ott's skilled nursing report, but she jumped right into the issue of a new general obligation bond and looking at architects which the board lapped up like milk after a dry piece of bread)

(A month later, I sent over some questions to the CEO)

See below:
-----Original Message-----
From: Laura Hart [mailto:muymala@msn.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 11:06 AM
To: Ott, Pamela
Subject: some questions...
Hello Pam:
I have a few SNF questions.
Are you taking new patients? [Ott, Pamela] No If not, why not?[Ott, Pamela] We are full like a tick!
Is Dr. Pormir being investigated as well; [Ott, Pamela] yes or has he been given a clean bill of health?[Ott, Pamela] there is information about the Director of SNF
Have you received any fines so far; [Ott, Pamela] No, to our knowledge, CMS has not been notified (DHS only makes recommendations to CMS) and what were they for?[Ott, Pamela]
Will you be fined for anything else in an ongoing manner?[Ott, Pamela] The way that the "fines" are designed, they go on until DHS comes back to find that everything in the plan of correction is in compliance. We were in compliance before DHS ever left our facility short of providing employee education which has taken place this week. Why were patients in the SNF given psychotropic medications without the permission of the family of the patients? [Ott, Pamela] Yes, 1 resident. 2 physicians evaluated the resident for psychotic behaviors (kicking, screaming, biting, refusing care) BUT - we did not have a psychiatrist evaluate. How many of these patients were involved?Who told Gwen to leave? [Ott, Pamela] No, when Gwen already knew that we were having a special Board meeting to deal with the behavior problems, when Carol Dene told her that DHS was on their way to do an investigation and that so far, their investigation had revealed that the biggest issue of immediate jeopardy was the DON, she promptly packed up her things and left the facility. Did she do it on her own? What is her last name?[Ott, Pamela] Hughes What sorts of documentation problems were you cited for? [Ott, Pamela] Care Plans that are individualized to the resident and reflect why we were giving particular medications and nurses notes taht again reflected why they were giving treatments/medications. (this is normal, nurses, given the choice of caring for patients and making sure that their charting is don will choose to ignore their paperwork every time, it is very frustrating!) What particularly didn't they write down?
Let me know when you get a chance. Thanks, Laura

(The employees were always, and probably still are, the ones that take the flack for everything done. Could it be that some short staffing problems lead to the lack of paperwork; or might it be that the missing paperwork didn't look good and stayed missing? I don't know. Could be both.)